Established as a boxing venue in 1910, the building itself dated from 1783 established by the Reverend Rowland Hill as the Surrey Congregational Chapel. Hill opted for the circular design to dissuade the devil from hiding in corners.

The chapel was used for 75 years before the lease expired and the congregation moved to another site.

After years as a place of worship, the church was converted into a warehouse. The man most responsible for the final transformation was Dick Burge, who had been an English middleweight boxing champion from Cheltenham when he was younger.

The person responsible for overseeing the chapel’s final conversion was Dick Burge, a former English middleweight champion from Cheltenham. The former place of worship had become a warehouse. Local homeless people helped Dick and his wife, Bella Burge, transform the building into a boxing venue.

The Ring - named after its shape - opened on 14 May 1910, with the arena soon staging events four to five times a week. The term "boxing ring" is not derived from the name of the building, contrary to local legend but instead from the London Prize Ring Rules in 1743, which specified a small circle in the centre of the fight area where the boxers met at the start of each round. The term ’ringside seat’ dates from the 1860s.

Dick and Bella set up a soup kitchen which they ran from the building during quieter hours.

Dick enlisted with the First Surrey Rifles at the outbreak of war in 1914 but died of pneumonia four years later. Two thousand mourners attended his funeral.

Dick had asked Bella to keep the business going and thus she became the world’s first female boxing promoter, earning her an affectionate nickname: Bella of Blackfriars.

In 1932, the venue began to add wrestling to the bill. When sport wasn’t scheduled, Shakespeare plays would be put on, performed by the local Bankside Players.

By the late 1930s, The Ring began to experience fiscal problems and in October 1940, the venue suffered a direct hit during the Blitz. The 18th century building was destroyed.

In the 1960s, a modern office block named ‘Orbit House’ was constructed on the ruins. This became home to the India Office’s library and archive which is now housed in the British Library.

In the first decade of the 21st century, Orbit House was in turn demolished and replaced by a structure called ‘The Palestra’ - a fitting Ancient Greek term denoting a public wrestling arena. The complex is now part of the Transport for London’s administration.